Basic Double Crochet Hats: Preemie-Adult

-This post is sponsored by mormon.org and the #LightTheWorld Christmas Campaign. All ideas and opinions are my own-

I love Christmastime. It is one of my favorite times of the year. There is so much wonderful stuff about Christmas time. It is a time to focus on Christ and his birth, it is a time to think about others and a time of giving. I think it seems like in general people tend to be more charitable and giving around Christmas but I also think that sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the business of the season and get lost in all of the other stuff that is going on so that in the end maybe we don't do as much as we would like. This year the LDS church, which I happen to be a member of, has a Christmas campaign that is encouraging everyone, regardless of religion, to participate in a month of service. They are using #LightTheWorld to share all of the acts of service being done around the world. If you want to participate through social media you can use that hashtag to share the things that you do. Beginning on December 1st they are starting 25 ways in 25 days, 25 ways to serve over the course of 25 days ending with Christmas. If you go to their site mormon.org, they have an advent calendar with different themes or ideas for each day beginning with a worldwide day of service on December 1st. Some of the ideas are really simple, writing a letter, or making a phone call, small things that can brighten someones day. Others may be bigger things that require a little more planning but you can do anything that you want. There is no specific thing you have to do, just a reminder to focus on being Christlike and serving and helping those around us.

As part of this they asked several different bloggers to post a way that they can provide service that ties into one of the themes. I looked over the calendar and thought about what I wanted to post about, each of the days has a theme that is Jesus ____ and so can you, like Jesus fed the hungry and so can you, or Jesus honored his parents and so can you. One of the days that caught my eye was Jesus healed the sick and so can you. I'm not a doctor and I am obviously not able to actually heal people but I do think that there are things that I can do. The ideas that they have to go along with that day are things like signing up to be an organ donor, giving blood, or even just praying for someone who is sick. I think that the reason this particular day stood out to me as one that I wanted to focus my post on is because a few months ago a week after my baby was born he got sick and we ended up being admitted to the hospital. We spent a week in the hospital with him. Luckily we live close to a children's hospital where he was able to get the help that he needed to get better. Really, the issue we were there for, although serious at first, was easily taken care of and pretty minor compared to a lot of kids that were there. I had the opportunity to attend a church meeting there where I met parents who were there with children who had cancer, transplants, and other serious issues, children who were spending not just a week in the hospital but months.

Any time we have had to go there for things with our kids they always seem to have little things to give the kids, a blanket, a stuffed animal, a hospital doll, or books. Something little to make it an easier time for the child. I thought, maybe I can't heal a sick kid but maybe I can make a little something to help them through a difficult or scary time in their life. I looked at the website for the hospital to see what kind of donations they are looking for. They had several different things on their site and I'm sure each hospital is different but one of the items on the list was hats. I thought, I can make hats, so I picked up some yarn in lots of bright fun colors and got started. I decided to make a basic double crochet hat pattern in several different sizes from preemie to adult that can be used to easily make hats to give to charities. I added some little accents to some of the hats to make animals or add flowers or bow, others I just did stripes. If you want to make something like this but not donate to a hospital there are lots of other places you could donate to, homeless shelters, foster organizations, schools, etc. The hospital I am donating my hats to actually doesn't use preemie hats so I won't be donating those, I included the pattern for them just in case someone wanted to donate to a place that did accept preemie hats.

I encourage you to check out all of the ideas on mormon.org and try to find ways to provide service for those around you this Christmas season. If you would like to make hats to donate somewhere here is my basic hat pattern in 4 preemie sizes, newborn, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 12 months, toddler, preschooler, child, teen, adult small, and adult large.

0-3 Months

For this size I made a little pink owl hat for a girl by making half light pink and half bright pink and adding eyes, a beak, and little tufts for the ears. For the boy version I did the last 2 rows in a contrasting colors and on the last row alternated front post and back post to make a ribbed band, then added a matching pom pom on top.

3-6 Months

For this size I made one row stripes in two colors for the girl hat and I replaced the last single crochet row with a row of shells in white. For the boy hat I opted for a simple one color hat with a contrasting row of single crochet around the bottom.

6-9 Months

For the girl hat in this size I went for an ombre type look going from bright pink to light pink to white and then added a simple flower. For the boy hat I alternated red and white each row with a contrasting green around the bottom.

Preschooler

My 3 year old thought that the girl hat needed to be a Frozen hat so I used light blue and white and added a snowflake. For the boy hat I did an ombre style from black to white with a contrasting color on the bottom.

Adult Small

The adult small size is also considered an adult woman size so I only made a more feminine hat for this size and chose more masculine colors for the large, which could also be considered an adult man size.

Disclosure and Copyright Information

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me, Erica Dietz. As the owner of this blog, I may accept forms of cash advertising or sponsorship as well as free product to use in my projects. I will always share my honest opinions and only recommend products that I would use myself. I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program and I may include affiliate links in some of my posts.

All of the photos and patterns/tutorials that I share are my own unless otherwise indicated. If I use a picture from another site credit will be given. If you would like to share one of my projects you may use one picture from my post as long as credit is given to me and it is linked back to my original post. Do not copy the actual patterns or tutorials to share on another site.

You are welcome to sell items made using my patterns. Please share where you found the pattern, a link to the pattern if selling online would be greatly appreciated.